Cat 3 Women Dominate at Green Mountain CX

0 CommentsFriday • September 23, 2011 • by eric

Liz smashed it this past weekend at Green Mountain.  Congrats on the pair of wins and your new leader’s jersey!

Emma also had a wicked ride.  Sunday she was on the podium with Liz being the only person who could beat her.  Two wins and a one-two finish are a nice way to start the New England calender off.  Good job ladies!  Since I don’t have a pic of Emma and Liz on the podium together yet, I’ll just post this awesome pic of Emma in her new national champion kit, provided by the awesome guys over at Verge.

The Junior National Champ lining up for the first time in the red white and blue.

Good luck racing this weekend in Rochester and Burlington!

Post Kirkland Update

0 CommentsWednesday • September 21, 2011 • by eric

Cross Season Gets Underway with Muddy Kirkland and hilly Green Mountain

Cross is boss.  No time of year is this old saying more true than now.  The season’s just gotten underway and its clear that the next 10-15 weeks of our lives are going to be pretty much straight dedicated to the art of CX.  NYCROSS is in full swing, with the series kick off in Kirkland and the Annual Beginner’s Clinic in the books, we’re on our way to another successful season of grassroots racing across upstate New York, (and Vermont!).

Kirkland took place last weekend, with a record number of racers coming out to slug it out in the post Irene mud bath that was the Kirkland Town Park.  Everyone talks about cross being all about mud, but to be honest, in the last few years its been a rare event that’s really put racers through  the torture of a full blown muddy mess.  Early season races that sink you deep into goo are especially rare.  Mark the 2011 Kirkland CX as a rare achievement of mother nature, with mud so deep i saw the top of my front wheel disappear.  I don’t know if anyone was ready for it, but I know I wasn’t!  To say it was a blast would be a cliched understatement.  It was EXACTLY what cross racing should be!

To be specific, the parts of the course that are normally the easiest became deeply rutted mud pits.  Running or grinding it out at 1 mph became the task in places that usually you’re recovering.  The hard parts, on the other hand, became relatively easy (not easier than normal, just less difficult than the rest, see IE, the sand pit).  Since it was actually possible to pedal, or at least, anticipate that you would be running in the difficult places ahead of time, they became the recovery zones, while the normally rideable grassy knolls turned into deep mud.  Being able to anticipate where to apply efforts and where to rest went out the window.  There was simply no resting.   I’ll say that at one point in the first lap, I started to really believe I needed to see a doctor, as there was no way the pain I was in was normal or caused solely by the race.  Turns out, it was!

Results are up on bikereg: http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2011/09/11-Kirkland-cx.asp.   The actual series points should be posted in a day or two.  Since this was the first race of the year, your place in the series is whatever place you finished at Kirkland.

Congrats to team NYCROSS.com riders Chris Delisle, for winning the Masters 35+, and Sarah K., for riding to 2nd in the women’s race.  Tim Janson and Jim Leone, had strong showings in the 3/4 race, and also, lets not forget Brad Stratton’s wicked strong 3rd place his debut in the 1/2/3 men.  Nice ride Brad!

Because I forgot my camera and Andrew wasn’t there, I only was able to dig up a couple pics, but they capture the essence of the day pretty well.  Thanks to Jess Klami for shooting these!

Also for the record, the ladies dominated the cat 3 races up at Green Mountain  too.  Liz WON BOTH DAYS! And Emma was on the podium right behind her on day 2, after battling it in the Women’s 1/2/3 the day before.  Full report on that to come!

The Bethlehem Cup Looms

0 CommentsWednesday • November 10, 2010 • by eric

Have you signed up for the 2010 NYCROSS.com Series finale? What are you waiting for??!

https://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=11577

DO NOT FEAR THE LORD OF THE FLIES RUN UP!

Th Bethlehem Cup will have a new course design this year.  After years of wimps saying things like “the course is too hard” and “I can’t handle the two run ups per lap” and “its muddy”, Chuck Q promoter of cross and pain has relented, he’s allowing NYCROSS Course Captain Jim “The Buffalo” Leone to do a course revamp.  Jim has been course architect at the Uncle Sam GP in Troy the last few years, so if you’ve enjoyed those courses, head out to see what’s in stake for you at Bethlehem this weekend.

The laps will be of a more standard length, the course will be more spectator friendly, and the start and finish will use a nicely paved section of the park.  Sounds like your average weakling compliant cross race?  Well hold your horses Tex, the course will still include the run up to end all run ups, and the terrain known infamously as “the upper plateau.”  Mud will be a factor.

The improvements will do a number of things for you – there’ll be more grassy technical stuff – if you raced NOHO this weekend, it won’t be like that, but it will be more like that than in the past.  And if you weren’t super into the unique long lap-low number of laps style that we used in the past, you’ll be happy to know you’ll likely be coming by the finish line every 6-9 minutes this year.  Most importantly, since you’ll be spending more time in view of the spectators, you won’t be able to secretly dog it nearly as much as on the old course.  Come ready.  The race will be even better this year, but no, it won’t be easy.

Of course, the Chili Cook Off, free beer from The Albany Pump Station, and elite series prizes and podium presentations for the entire NYCROSS Series will be this weekend as well.  You won’t want to miss it!

See you there!

Big Update – Series Standings With One Race to Go

0 CommentsThursday • November 4, 2010 • by eric

Some series tighten, some are blown wide open as series heads into its final weekend of racing.

Sarah Krzysiak opens it up in the Elite Women's race.

Sorry for the delay in getting the site updated, having to be a lawyer the last couple week kept me away from The NYCROSS World Headquarters. – by now I imagine most of you have found your way to bikereg.com and seen the results of the most recent two NYCross.com Events, the Spa:CX and Wicked Creepy Cross.

If not here’s the link to the most current series standings:

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2010/11/2-NYcross-Series-Standings.asp

And here are the race results from Saratoga and Bennington:

Saratoga:

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2010/10/24-Saratoga-Spa-Cyclocross.asp

Wicked Creepy:

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2010/10/31-Clean-Bottle-Wicked-Creepy-Cyclocross.asp

If you look over the series standings you’ll see two trends exist throughout the categories.  In some of the fields the contests are blown wide open.  Others are going to be nail biters.  In the Elite Mens field Al Donahue (Wheelhouse – NCC)  wrapped up his third win of the series and now has an insurmountable points lead going into the final race of the series, the Bethlehem Cup.  Al may not have wrapped it up so easily if not for his teammate and series second place rider Jeremy Durrin (Wheelhouse – NCC) having the unfortunate luck of breaking his collar bone in a crash while on a training ride last week.  Amazingly, Jeremy has second place locked up, thanks to having taken three wins and a second place before his crash.  With third place Seamus Powell (Ollet Coaching/Windham Mountain Outfitters) trailing Jeremy by 21 points going in, the top two spots are decided.  Even if Seamus takes the win next weekend he’ll still be one point behind Jeremy.  That’s a show of force by Wheelhouse that can’t be ignored.  While Seamus may not be able to leap up the standings, he can take solace in the fact that he’s unlikely to be caught either.  With Anthony Clark (Wheelhouse – NCC) sitting in fourth place, Clark will have to win, and hope Seamus finishes lower than 12th place to beat him.  Given Seamus recent tear up the rankings, I’d say that’s unlikely to happen.

In the Women’s elite field the battle is far from over.  NYCROSS.com’s own Sarah Krzysiak leads Jenny Ives (Anthem Women’s Cycling) by a scant 2 points.  Bryna Blanchard (Windham Mountain Outfitters) sits third overall, and in fourth, just 3 points back of Bryna is Madeleine Bonneville (Team Elevate Cycles).   Madeline can still leap onto the podium for the series if she can tackle the tall task of beating Bryna by more than a few places come next weekend.  This series title will come down to the mud bogs of Bethlehem.  I can’t wait.

In the 3/4 men the race for the title is similarly tight, with Cody Madigan (Team Tinney’s Tavern) leading Nicholas Quesnel (NCC) by just 3 points.  These two have battled back and forth all year, and it will be very interesting to see who takes the title.  in the Bronze position is Adam St. Germain, he has the distinction of having won each of the three series races he’s entered.  That leaves this bunch tight enough to say anything can still happen.  It should be a blast to watch.

In the Masters Races, Chris Delisle (NYCROSS.com / CBRC) owns the 35+, and in the 45+ Brad Young (Team Tinney’s Tavern) has won literally every race, locking up the series title long ago.  Tim Leonard (NYCROSS.com / CBRC) has a commanding lead over Art Goedeke (C B R C / Gorilla) in the 55+, but Corner Cycle’s David Rath is sneaking up, and may steal second away from Art next Sunday.

One of the most interesting races, if mostly because its a qualified local “grudge” match, is for second in the 45+, where Tom Butler (CCC / Keltic Construction / Zane’s) leads Danny Goodwin (NYCROSS.com / CBRC) by a single point.  Those two racers finished neck and neck in Bennington and its clear that the race for points will be a tight one in Bethlehem.  Should be another good one to watch.

The Bethlehem Cup will feature a new course design this year laid out by Jim “Buffalo” Leone.  If you had fun racing the courses in Troy last month, you won’t want to miss the race in Bethlehem this weekend.

Register here: http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=11577

See you there!

Videos from Uncle Sam

0 CommentsFriday • October 22, 2010 • by eric

Cick here for some good video from the races this weekend courtesy of Henry Jurenka and his site- cyclocrossvideos.com.

Thanks Henry!

Uncle Sam Results and Updated Series Standings

0 CommentsThursday • October 21, 2010 • by eric

Record Numbers Race in Troy.

The Uncle Sam GP saw well over two hundred racers head to Troy for cross racing in Prospect Park this past weekend, and what a weekend it was. Course Designer Jim Leone threw a couple surprises at riders Saturday, running our “new” course rather than the expected traditional course. The new course actually debuted last year, and we dialed it in even more this year. Many riders commented that it was one of the most flowy, well designed courses they’d encountered, bar none. After I finished the 3/4 race Saturday I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face, and that takes into account the fact that I nearly threw up chasing Pat Snoop around on the last lap. All in all, it was a great day of racing and the best part was that we got to do it all again Sunday. The two day format is really fantastic, and having two days of racing where I can sleep in my own bed makes it that much better.

Sunday saw a return to the traditional Troy course, which includes the lengthy climb from the bottom of the park right to the tip top, giving power riders a distinct advantage on the second day that they didn’t see on day one with the techy course’s tricky off camber. Of course, day two did see a return of the signature reverse camber right turn. A feature I proudly used to chop Gavin during our race Sunday. Fantastic.

Anyway, here’s the link to results. I apologize that it took some time to get compete results up on bikereg. There was some data entry that got messed up when the officials hand written score sheets went into my computer and it slowed us down. Won’t happen again…

Uncle Sam GP results:

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2010/10/17-Uncle-Sam-GP.asp

Series Standings:

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2010/10/17-Uncle-Sam-GP.asp

Al Donahue (Wheelhouse/NCC)  tightened his grip on the Elite Men’s Series with his win Sunday.  Sarah Krzysiak (NYCROSS.com / CBRC) doubled up, winning both days and boosting herself into 3rd in the series while series leader Jenny Ives (Anthem) finished on the podium both days to solidify here lead in the points.

Perhaps the most awesome part of the weekend, was when the mysterious, golden hearted Monkey Man made a surprise return to NYCROSS Land.  Word on the street was that the Monkey Man traveled on foot though the woods to get to the park, to assure no one would see him coming until the last possible second.  Amazing.

The NYCROSS.com Team not only worked hard all weekend to make the race happen, but threw down when it came time to pedal as well.  Chris Delisle took 1st in the Masters 35+ Sunday, Danny Goodwin took second Sunday (45+), and Tim Leonard took third in the 55+ both days.  In the Elite racers Sarah Krzysiak took dominant wins both days, and Dan Chabanov threw down in a top notch Men’s Elite Field both days, with 6th and 5th place finishes each day.  Nice Job Guys!

All Photos by Andrew Franciosa.

Uncle Sam GP, Races 3 and 4 in the NYCROSS.com Series

0 CommentsThursday • October 14, 2010 • by eric

The Uncle Sam GP Race Weekend is only two days away, register now!

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=11516

We’ve extended registration until 10pm tonight.  Word on the street is some of the New England Races have had to cancel due to the incoming rain storm.  The good news is we’re going strong in New York so head over for two days of strong racing on what many riders say is their favorite set of race courses all season.  Prospect Park in Troy drains very well, and we’re not expected to get the huge quantity of rain that areas to the East are, so our course should be in  comparatively good shape Saturday and Sunday.  If you haven’t preregisterd do it now and save yourself the $5 late fee for day of reg.